


It's Not Perfect

by inkedthought



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 23:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13351317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkedthought/pseuds/inkedthought
Summary: Magnus makes the wooden ducks for Julia. She always loved it.





	It's Not Perfect

Magnus and Julia sit, hand in hand, in front of a pond. The breeze quietly stirs the surface of the water, lily pads and debris spinning fluidly.

Julia suddenly cups a hand to her cheek, and points out towards the edge of the pond. Magnus, excited, looks closer, and sees a family of ducks slowly swimming their way towards them. He smiles, watching the small ducklings doing their best to keep in line with their mother.

“Look Magnus!” Julia grips his hand tightly, and rests her head on his shoulder. “They’re adorable.” He could practically feel the sparkles in her eyes, and the way her cheek dug into his arm was a telltale sign of her gorgeous grin. She sighs, content.

“Everyone should get to see them. The little things.” Magnus looked over at his beloved wife, and smiled softly. He hoped to have their own ducklings someday.

~~~

“Okay, open!” Magnus can barely contain his excitement. Julia opens her eyes, and before her in Magnus’ worn hands lies a small, carve wooden duck. She gasps with delight, and takes it quickly, clutching it to her chest and melting as she absorbs every detail of the trinket. When she flips it over, ‘Love Magnus’ is etched into the flat base.

“I love it so much.” Meeting his gaze, tears well up in her eyes. A huge grin takes over his face, and he sweeps her up in his arms immediately, the both of them giggling together in a way only those truly in love can.

In the coming months, Julia continues to find the small wooden ducks hidden for her all over their home. Early on, she had begun sharing them herself, leaving them around Raven’s Roost, and gifting them to friends and strangers alike in hopes of sharing her joy. With Magnus crafting them in his free time, one can eventually be seen in almost any windowsill.

Even without acknowledging the act vocally, Julia and Magnus’ bond is profoundly deepened by this small ritual they created together.

~~~

After the terrible loss of losing Julia, his world, his everything, Magnus can barely muster the energy to dig through the remains of the home they had shared. However, if he could find something, anything to have of hers to keep her in his heart and spirit, it would be worth the devastating pain of sifting through something he felt he could no longer touch.

Hours into this excavation, Magnus’ hand finally meets something solid. Though his hands and arms are already unbearably raw, he digs as fast as he can and blows the dust off the small wooden carving. Somewhat disappointed, he sighs and looks closer at what he thinks to be one of his ducks. Yet, looking closer, the carving appears to be more rough than something he would have made himself.

“There’s no way…” Frantically, he turns it over, and finds her handwriting etched into the base.

‘Love Julia’ Magnus holds it to his chest, and looks up the sky, tears streaming down his face.

He missed her.

~~~

Lights and decorations strewn extraneously and chaotically everywhere, Candlenights was upon the Bureau of Balance. Making the rounds with Merle and Taako, Magnus runs into Killian, who holds out a gift for him.

Though he wasn’t paying attention, when his eyes met what was in her hands he froze for just a moment. Duck shaped whetstones. He did his best to warmly accept them and keep composed, but his mind ran haywire as he was doing so. Magnus had long since buried the memories of those ducks, and though these were only reminiscent of those times, it was hard to face those memories during this time of year.

Killian stood expectantly waiting for something in return, and he fumbled, stuttering over his words as he turned around for a few moments. His mind was racing. Thinking of Killian, such a strong and kind woman, he could see a little bit of Julia in her. Julia had loved sharing those ducks.

Without a moment to spare, Magnus turned back to Killian, and plopped a hastily carved wooden duck into her hands. Though she was confused, she could feel how genuine this gift was. He felt good doing this again. Better than he thought he would.

Though it may have seemed cheap, and it may have been from a lack of wood on his person, regifting the whetstones made Magnus unbelievably happy. This is what Julia had enjoyed. His beautiful wife.

And anyone who took the care to flip over their respective ducks would find something roughly etched into the bottom. Confusing, but laden with sentimentality.

_‘For Julia’_


End file.
